We speak to the wonderful Kia Abdullah about how to write a page turner, being a travel writer and the threat of AI.

Kia Abdullah is a bestselling author and travel writer. Her novels include Take It Back, a Guardian and Telegraph thriller of the year; Truth Be Told, which was shortlisted for the Diverse Book Awards; and Next of Kin, which won the Adult Fiction Diverse Book Award, and was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Those People Next Door was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month pick, and Kia has also been selected for The Times Crime Club.

Kia has written for The New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times, The Times and the BBC, and is the founder of Asian Booklist, a non-profit that advocates for diversity in publishing and helps readers discover new books by British Asian authors.

Her new novel What Happens in the Dark was freshly out in the world as of 19th June.

Listen to this bonus festive episode with Jo Middleton author of Happy Bloody Christmas! We talk about her incredibly speedy novel writing process, challenges going from blog to book, and her brilliant advice to just get cracking!

Follow Jo @jomiddletonauthor

Jo Middleton is a writer, bookshop manager, creative writing teacher and mum of two daughters. She lives in Somerset with her three cats, all named after fictional detectives, and a goofy golden retriever. Happy Bloody Christmas is her second novel.

This week we are in conversation with brilliant Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, on all aspects of her creative writing process, watching reality TV as research and fitting the writing in around everything else.

Follow Lizzie @lizziedamiblackburn

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a British-Nigerian charity worker turned author who grew up in south London and now lives with her husband and young son in Milton Keynes. Her bestselling debut novel, Yinka, Where is your Huzband? was selected by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai as a Literati book club pick and was one of Oscar-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson's top five books that made a difference – she still pinches herself to this day. Lizzie was a runner-up for a Diverse Book Award in 2023. The Re-Write is her second novel.